You're just making shit up out of whole cloth because you don't like his personality. None of that shit has ever been said by any player or manager who has ever managed him in regards to his performance on the pitch.

And then you try an d compare him negatively in this light to Zlatan Jeff? Seriously some of the dumbest understanding of football players I've read.

Ronaldo leaving Utd was an absolute disaster, on and off the pitch. It's reflected in how we've gone in the Champions League since then.

For me the Germany v. Portugal match at the 2014 world cup is the perfect example for what happens when a competent team isolates Ronaldo and prevents his side from passing to him or building up attacks around him. It ended 4:0 for Germany, the Portugese side completely fell apart in a way that led to Pepe losing his shit and being sent off for headbutting Thomas Müller and with Ronaldo effectively out the Portugese side had no one to turn to and no one to restore any sort of order or momentum. Ronaldo became more and more agitated and frustrated as the game went on and had no idea how to pull his own side out of a complete nosedive. Even though he was captain of his team and had the experience he had no idea how to be a captain and restore confidence in his team mates.

That was against a German side that wasn't even up to form yet and that would go on to draw against Ghana and luckily win 1:0 against the USA team.

Ronaldo's ego and philosophy on the pitch create a power vacuum that the team can't compensate for when he's not able to play his game and his side has to pick up the slack.

For me that is a deficit in a team sport and CR never adresses that because everything has to be about him and about his personal achievement and legacy.

I never said Ronaldo wasn't one of the best players on the planet, he is. His talent is insanely high. His talent is also diminished by the fact that he dives like a little bitch, whines like a little bitch when his dives aren't treated as fouls and blames everyone but himself when shit goes wrong. He is Jose Mourinho if Mourinho was one of the greatest players of all time instead of a manager.

Suarez is an utter cunt on the field but at least when his team loses, he doesn't blame other people, he shoulders as much of the blame on himself. I'd rather have Suarez as my captain than Ronaldo any day of the week. I may want to put pepper spray on my arms in case he gets peckish before his halftime orange slices but I'd want him on my team before Ronaldo.

Griezmann is filling the role Ronaldo can't and the semi final was a perfect example.

He elevated every other player on the pitch and made the French side not only hold up but actually hold their own against an utterly dominating German side. We lost for a reason and Griezmann had a lot to do with that.

Germany had 70% possession in the first half and lead on shots on goal by a margin and was relentlessly pressing forward and France never faltered once.

Griezmann is legit, especially if you play him centrally. I think some managers see his pace and think he'd be better on the wing, but he's so much better if you let him start in front of the goal and just flit around. His finishing is exceptional and his pace will allow him to slice defenses up. He's just as good playing on his own as he is with someone like Giroud in front of him who can flick headers into his path. He's the reason Athletico made the CL final as well as being able to send Jackson Martinez off to China for a fortune despite Martinez being a complete bust in La Liga.

It's funny about Martinez too - I'm seeing a lot of highly touted Portuguese players (and foreigners playing in Portugal's Super Liga) getting sold for big money into the top 3 leagues and being completely overhyped and overvalued. Ronaldo has warped that market so much.

This. SO MUCH THIS. I knew Portugal was going to win just by parking the goddamn bus. It didn't help that France just seemed to give up pressing or any sort of quick tempo once Ronaldo went off, thinking they would just win by virtue of every one of their players being better in every way than their counterparts that were left on the pitch. Such a horrible, boring, sleep-inducing negative game and tournament.